The New Order
by Armbar Nation
Summary: In January 2018, the call finally comes. WWE want Ronda Rousey back, more than two years after releasing her from her contract. Her return to the company will see her meet up with old friends, encounter old enemies, and could it also see her rekindle an old relationship? All will be revealed from Ronda's own point of view. *Seth/Ronda story 5 of 11*
1. Chapter 1

I would like to advise potential readers that this story has just been rewritten. The first story in this series was first written more than two years ago. Looking back at the series as a whole, I realised that it needed a lot of work to bring it up to standard, especially with regard to the grammar. Rewriting all of these stories is a considerable undertaking, which will take me some time. Thank you in advance for your patience.

The current status of the rewrite is as follows:

 **There's A First Time For Everything - Rewrite complete**

 **Opposite Extremes** (One shot which fits in after chapter 9 of There's A First Time For Everything) - **Rewrite complete**

 **Faces - Rewrite complete**

 **My Fight - Rewrite complete**

 **The New Order - Rewrite complete**

 **Moving Up**

 **Broken Arrow**

 **Revolutionary**

 **Time to Say Goodbye**

 **A Night To Remember**

* * *

 _Author's note:_

 _There are original characters in this series which were created by my readers. I offered the chance to have a character feature in the story and selected the ones I liked the most from the submissions I received. I'll list the characters and their creators below so that everyone has the credit they deserve for creating them._

 _May Devany - created by Willow Edmond_

 _Anna Hollenbeck - created by Debwood-1999_

 _Alexis Styles - created by Shiki94_

 _Sarita Lopez - created by Chaka1967_

 _I thank all of the people named above for the use of their characters and the time they put into creating them._

* * *

 _ **Friday 19th January 2018**_

When the car pulled up outside of the factory building that I was visiting, I felt relief wash over me. My reason for feeling that way was that there was no one there waiting for me. That is, no one aside from the two guys wearing black business suits, who obviously worked at the place.

"You get me into some fucking situations, Willow," I complained to my agent, who was sitting beside me in the back of the car. "I mean, a girl changing her name to Ronda Rousey just to get to meet me? Are these fucking people smoking crack or something?"

"Stop whining, Ronda," Willow ordered me. There wasn't even a hint of sympathy in her voice. Willow was a good agent, and since I hired her we had made a real shit load of money for each other. Willow had gotten to know me, and she was often harsh with me when I started moaning about things. When I genuinely needed advice or support, she would give it, but if, like now, she thought that I was just complaining, she wouldn't hear a word of it. Sometimes that pissed me off, but overall we got on just great, which was hardly surprising considering that Willow had been a bit of a failure as far as her career was concerned, until I gave her a shot. Even I had considered firing her at one point, after the first movie that she got me involved in after I left WWE. What a steaming pile of shit that had been. It was a surprise that starring in that thing didn't bury me, but one thing I had learned to be good at was public relations. WWE had done the hard work and made the public love me, I just had to hold onto the ball and run with it. That was why I was about to take time out of my Friday morning to visit a factory which made Adidas products - my wristbands being one of them.

"But seriously though..." I attempted again, but Willow quickly cut me off.

"Enough. Out of the car. Smile. You know the drill."

 _Yes boss._

I opened the car's door and stepped out into the cold air. The two men who were waiting to greet me must have been freezing their balls off waiting outside, and there was no need for them to do it. As they approached me, I could see that, predictably, they were hyped to meet me. But at the same time, they were surprised to see me dressed in shorts and a muscle tee. Clearly they expected me to show up in a dress or a suit or some such crap. I avoided that kind of thing whenever possible because it didn't present the right kind of image for me. This was Ronda Rousey, not Stephanie McMahon.

Pretending to be as thrilled to meet people as they were to meet me was a talent that I had developed early on in my career with WWE. It was a simple thing to do, but did so much to make me look like the one who went the extra mile, helping me to help me stand out from all of the other wrestlers. How they all failed to see that was something that I found pathetic. I smiled at the two suits as I shook hands with both of them in turn. It was a method of greeting that was more formal than I liked, but I rolled with it. We walked into the building, through the reception area, along a hallway and into a meeting room as one of the guys droned on about what was about to happen and how it would all go down. I paid little attention to him, while trying to look like I was.

 _You're going to film me giving a personalised wristband to some nut job girl who is crazy enough to change her fucking name to Ronda Rousey for that specific reason. How much explaining do you need to do, really?_

Despite however many of those wristbands had been sold over the past couple of years - I had no idea of the number - there was only one with Ronda Rousey personalised on it, until today at least. I knew that for sure, because the first edition wristbands, before Adidas took over production of them, were not available with personalisation. When Adidas decided to offer personalisation, I instructed them that if anyone attempted to request Ronda Rousey as the name, the confirm button would grey out and make processing the request impossible. The idea was for people to get their own names on the wristbands, not mine. Now this fruit loop, whoever she was, had decided to change her name to Ronda Rousey in the hope of getting the second such wristband in existence, and having the chance to meet me in the process. Someone, presumably Willow, had found out about it on Twitter or something, and here I was, about to hand over a wristband with Ronda Rousey on it to someone else. It pissed me off, honestly, but Willow was right, it was good publicity, and that was made us the big bucks.

 _A decorator doesn't refuse to work on a room if he doesn't like the colour of the paint he has to use, I guess._

There was a two man film crew already in the meeting room, and another few minutes dragged by as they bored me with information that I didn't need, relating to the video going up on the front page of Adidas's website.

"I think we're ready, guys," Willow interjected gently. She was able to read me like a book, and had clearly seen a sign of me getting impatient. At least her intervention got things moving more quickly. Another guy appeared from somewhere with a black presentation case which he handed to me. Inside was the wristband that I needed to give to the crazy fan.

The filming began and one of the suits did a quick piece for the camera, explaining what was going on. He asked me how I felt about it, and I smiled and gave some standard bullshit about being honored that someone would go to this kind of extent just to meet me, an ordinary girl from Riverside, California. People loved that kind of humble shit.

The next few minutes, which I spent talking to the girl who was now also called Ronda Rousey, were very awkward for me, but I managed not to let it show. The worst thing was that she looked like she was going to start crying when she walked into the room. I really hated it when that happened. Even so, I chatted to her for a few minutes, and we posed for some pictures with our matching wristbands. Without letting it be noticeable, I glanced around, hoping to make eye contact with Willow. She would know that I meant for her to call and end to it and get me out of there. That was the routine that we had established; when I was doing something like this, Willow would always be nearby, as would a couple of security meatheads if it was a more public event, and one of them would step in and tell me that it was time for me to go. I would then smile, shrug, apologise to whoever I was with, say that there was nothing that I could do, and get the hell out of there. On this occasion though, Willow seemed to be more interested in standing in the corner of the room, mumbling into her phone.

 _What are you fucking around at? For God's sake, get over here._

Eventually, we finished the filming and Ronda Rousey Two left the room, with her life now made. One of the suits went with her. Willow walked slowly over to me, but she was still on the phone. I listened to her half of the conversation, impatiently at first, but after only a few words it grabbed my attention.

"As I said, if you can convince her, it's definitely possible. We'll obviously need to tie it in with Wasteland too, but you guys are good with that kind of thing."

"Yes."

"We can talk about that."

"What? Sunday? Why don't you give us a bit of notice, huh?"

I smiled as I carried on listening. Not many people did sarcasm like Willow.

"I see."

"Yeah."

"Right. I can put her on now."

"Sure."

Willow moved her phone away from her head and whispered something to me that I definitely hadn't expected to hear. "Hunter Helmsley. WWE."

I hardly needed to be told the name of the company. I smiled as I took Willow's phone. There was only one possible reason that Hunter would be calling for me. I was surprised that it had taken this long, honestly. Very surprised. "Hey, Hunter. What's up?" I greeted him, making sure that my tone conveyed that we were speaking as equals. The guy wasn't my boss any more. That time was a long way in the past. I liked the guy, but he needed to know where we both stood.

"Hi, Ronda. How are you?" He sounded cheerful enough.

"Right now? Interested, let's say. So, what's the idea?"

"Huh?" Hunter asked.

I had already decided not to fuck around with the guy. He was coming to me, not the other way around. Whether I liked him or not, that meant that I was on the front foot with this thing from the off, and that was how I wanted it to be. "I figure you're not calling to invite me over to dinner," I replied evenly. "You want me back at WWE. You've just been talking about it with Willow, and she hasn't blown you off, which means you're offering enough money. I don't honestly care how much. She does my negotiating. The creative idea is what'll decide if this happens or not. So, what is it?"

"Uh, right," Hunter hesitated for a moment, which made me grin. My abruptness had surprised him. "Well, I'll be honest, we had Rock lined up for this thing, but I just found out that he busted an ankle yesterday while filming something for his latest movie."

"You're telling me I'm your second choice?" I asked, not faking the irritation.

"Yeah," he responded flatly.

 _Nothing like the truth, I suppose. He's trying to send a message with that comment. Ignore the bait._

"Fine," I said with a shrug. "What's the idea?"

Over the next couple of minutes, Hunter proceeded to detail what he had in mind for my return to WWE, if I agreed to do it, and I had to admit to myself that he had me on the hook. The idea was a really good one, and it would make the fans lose their shit, which was the main thing for both Hunter and myself. That kind of thing meant money for WWE, and for me. WWE would also work in a bunch of references to my latest movie, Wasteland, which had just had it's cinema release and was doing insane numbers at the box office, a fact that was actually a bit of a surprise to all involved, including me.

"Alright, I'm up for that," I told Hunter. "I'll pass you back to Willow. She'll work everything else out with you."

"Great," Hunter said, a smile evident in his voice. The guy loved to make money for WWE, and there was definitely nothing wrong with that. He knew that he had just made himself a lot of it, too, even with whatever he was going to have to pay me.

When I handed the phone back to Willow, she surprised me by telling Hunter that she would call him back later. I wasn't really focused on her anyway, or the guy from Adidas who I was saying goodbye to. The only thing that matter to me was that in just two days I would be back at WWE. That would be interesting. It would be interesting a long time before the Royal Rumble event actually got started. I was already looking forward to seeing several people backstage, and not all of them would be looking forward to seeing me, that was for sure.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Sunday 21st January 2018_**

WWE's biggest priority was to make sure that my presence at Sunday night's Royal Rumble event did not leak out ahead of time. Hunter had made that perfectly clear to me, saying that he wanted the moment when myself and the other surprise returnee entered the arena to really blow the fans away. That was why I had to be driven to the arena in a car with blacked out windows. The procedure was the same every year at the Royal Rumble, as there were always surprise entrants into the rumble match itself, but that wasn't what Hunter had planned for me. This was much bigger than an appearance in the rumble match, which was something I would have rejected because I would obviously not have been booked to win the match. The idea that Hunter had pitched to me was actually a fitting reason for me to return to the company, which was why I had accepted his offer.

There were several hours before the Royal Rumble event would get started, but there was still a large congregation of fans around the entrance to the parking garage, trying to get a glimpse of who was arriving. WWE had it under control though, as there were security staff keeping the road clear. My driver barely slowed down as he drove past the crowd and down the ramp into the garage.

A few moments later, I was out of the car and heading into the arena. I had two of my own security guys with me, and they walked with me, one on either side. It wasn't really necessary, but I liked the fact that in a way it made me look more important than everyone else. It had been more than two years since I had worked for WWE, which meant there would be a lot of new faces around, and that a lot of familiar ones were now gone. One of my few friends in the company was gone. Brie Bella had chosen to retire several months earlier. We had spoken on the phone about it, and she had told me that although she had risen to become one of the biggest stars of the Divas division, she had just never been able to feel happy in WWE following the death of her husband, Daniel Bryan. It was perfectly understandable, and I couldn't fault her for wanting to move on and try something different. Nikki Bella still worked for the company, and I would now be sharing a locker room with her. Hunter had offered me one of my own, but I wasn't interested in that.

I had been asked to report to Hunter when I arrived at the arena, so the first objective was to find out where his office was. I wondered who I would encounter first, hoping that it would be Sarita Lopez. I had been looking forward to bumping into her for two days, since finding out that I was coming back to WWE. It pleased me to think that Sarita was probably dreading it as much as I was relishing it. Sarita was the kind of person who liked to do a lot of talking _about_ people, but not much talking _to_ the same people. I hated that kind of thing. The truth of it was that she was right about a lot of the stuff that she had said about me, which I hated even more. She probably wasn't the only one who had figured out that a lot of my public image was bullshit, but she was certainly the only one who had gone public to call me out on it. Over the two years since I left WWE, both Sarita and I had said a lot about each other, but we had never actually spoken to each other. That was going to change tonight, and I had some choice words prepared for the bitch.

I asked a random crew member for directions to Hunter's office and we headed off to find it. The guy had looked like he was going to piss when he saw me, and I had expected him to ask to get a picture or something, but it seemed like the two huge guys in suits beside me put him off just with their presence, which was definitely one reason to have them around. Of course, I couldn't give the crew member that impression. I was working now, which meant that I had to present my best image to any fans and other randoms that I might encounter. I had to smile a lot, act like I was happy to see people, all of that bullshit. It was almost like getting in character, as I would do later in the night.

Disappointingly, although I saw and greeted several people, I didn't bump into anyone I actually knew before I reached Hunter's office. I knew that there would be three people waiting in there for me, and I was looking forward to seeing all of them. I had always gotten along well with Hunter and Stephanie, and even with the way things had ended when I left WWE, they had always been nothing but pleasant to me on the several occasions I had bumped into them at various events. The third person was someone who I was definitely keen to meet, although I had no idea how he was going to react to me. I was realistic enough to know that it could go either way. Without hesitating, I knocked on the door to the office and walked in.

The three people I had expected to see were indeed all in the room, and had been standing around drinking coffee and having a conversation about something. When I entered, they all turned to face me. Hunter greeted me first. "Hey Ronda, how are you?" he asked as he took a couple of steps towards me.

"Good, Hunter. You?" We exchanged a firm handshake.

"Really good." Hunter gestured at the man standing beside him. "Let me introduce you. Ronda, Shane. Shane, Ronda."

"Hey, how are you?" I smiled at Shane McMahon. I'd watched WWF when I was younger, back when Shane was one of the regular on-screen characters, and I had always liked his character and admired how well he could wrestle given his lack of a real athletic background. It was rare for me to actually be pleased to meet someone, but this was one such occasion. I had wondered if Shane would be cold to me, given what had happened between myself and Vince, but I saw no sign of coldness, resentment or anything like that.

"Hi Ronda, nice to meet you. Good to be back?" Shane asked.

We shook hands and I laughed as I answered him. "You tell me, you've been gone a lot longer than I have. I never thought this would happen, for either of us actually."

"Right," Shane grinned, but didn't offer anything more. I knew that he had left WWE because he had problems working with Vince, and I had hoped he would go into it in a bit more detail about it. Still, the old coot was the father of two of the people in the room, so it was hardly likely to be the place to verbally tear the guy apart, much as I would have liked to.

"Good to see you, Ronda," Stephanie greeted me next, and we exchanged a brief and slightly awkward hug. It really was not my greeting of choice, but Stephanie favoured it, so I went along with it.

"Hey Steph, you look great." I meant it too. Stephanie was one of those people that seemed to look better and better as she aged. I wondered what her secret was as she smiled at the compliment. Being rich and happy probably had a lot to do with it. I had one of those things, but not the other. One of my biggest regrets in life was allowing my relationship with Seth Rollins to fail. It was my fault as much, if not more so, than his. If I could have gone back and changed any part of my life, I would have chosen to change that in a heartbeat, even over getting onto the horse on the day I broke my neck. Seeing Seth with that little piece of trash May Devany was definitely going to be hard for me, when the time came.

Stephanie and I had gotten off to a difficult start when I joined the roster as wrestler, and there had been ups and downs since then too, but I respected her, which set her apart from most of the other people in the building. It had to have been Stephanie who had chosen me to come in for this storyline too, and I was proud that she would choose me.

Hunter and Stephanie proceeded to give me the idiots version of the on-screen storyline that had lead up to the point of my involvement. Their on screen characters, although they were husband and wife, had gotten into a rivalry which, in basic terms, revolved around who had control over decision making within WWE. Hunter had played the face role, and Stephanie had been the heel. Hunter had lost a match at the previous pay-per-view which had meant that he had to leave, unless Stephanie herself decided to bring him back at some point in the future. The following night on Raw, John Laurinaitis had returned, saying that he had been asked to represent the WWE board of directors and make an announcement. He had announced that due to Vince McMahon's imminent full retirement, his stocks in WWE were to be reassigned. The momentous occasion would take place at the Royal Rumble, and all seemed set for Stephanie McMahon to finally get her dirty hands on daddy's pot of gold.

With the recap complete, the four of us chatted away about other things for a few minutes, including what the original plan for this storyline had been before The Rock got injured. Apparently, I needed another reminder that I was the second choice. I decided to make my excuses and head off to find my locker room. The driver who brought me to the arena would have made sure that my things had been taken there for me by now.

It was only as I was walking out of the office that a thought hit me. It nearly made me stop in the doorway and turn around, but I managed not to. The whole conversation that I had just been a part of had seemed a little bit forced. Everyone had been just that little bit too polite to me, and had acted just that little bit too pleased to see me. The whole thing had been faked, as though Hunter had told Stephanie and Shane that I was hard to work with, so they should just be nice and get it over with. As soon as I thought about it, I was convinced that I was right, and it made me feel uncomfortable. It made me feel like I wanted to know what those people really thought of me.

My head had started to spin a bit, and I had an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach, so I decided to hurry to the locker room that I was sharing with Nikki and talk to her. I knew that she was a true friend of mine and that talking to her would get rid of this strange and unpleasant feeling that I couldn't really describe. Part of me was asking why I should care if Hunter and Stephanie actually liked me, but another part was reminding me that, aside from Nikki, no one else in WWE liked me either. "Fuck it," I mumbled to myself as I hurried along the hallway, trying to tell myself that I didn't have to give a shit about anyone else's opinion of me.

Sometimes in life, things happen at precisely the best, or worst, moment possible. I rounded a corner and almost walked right into a legend. Someone who I had nothing but admiration for. Someone I had always wanted to meet, but had never had the opportunity to.

"Ronda," he greeted me, a little surprised himself to almost walk into me.

"Ric. Wow. I've always..." I managed to stop myself before it got any more cringe worthy. I didn't want to look like an idiot in front of Ric Flair.

Ric let me off the hook by giving me a gentle smile, or at least I thought that was what he was doing, but then he spoke and I got a different impression. "I'm surprised to see you come back, honestly. I thought you were bigger than this place now." There was no hostility in his words, but they sure cut me. I would have preferred hostility to what I actually picked up on, which was disappointment.

"Sorry? What do you mean?" I managed to ask.

"Just what I said. You're bigger than WWE, right? You can walk away, bad mouth everyone who says anything negative about you, and that Ronda Rousey bandwagon just keeps rolling along."

If it was almost anyone else speaking to me like that I would have told them to fuck off, but this was, in my opinion, the greatest wrestler of all time, and I seriously doubted that his intention was to stand there and insult me. No, he had some kind of point that he was trying to make. "What are you trying to say to me, Ric? Just say it. I'm a big girl, I can take it."

"Alright," Ric nodded, taking me at face value. "You're the biggest waste of talent I've ever seen in this business. That's what I'm trying to say." His words hit me like one of Hunter's trademark sledgehammers, but he was far from done. "You think that having people chant your name makes you great? You think that wearing some dumb wristband makes you great? You think having millions of people follow you on Twitter makes you great? It doesn't. All that does is make you money. Every one of those girls back there in the locker room is better than you. Your best buddy Sarita Lopez is better than you. You know why? Because although that girl isn't that great in the ring, she's paid her dues. She goes out there five or six nights a week and busts her ass for this business. If you'd ever showed that kind of commitment, you could have been the best woman in the history of this business, but you won't, will you? And you know what? That's a damn shame."

"Back off, leave her alone," one of my security guys ordered Ric, but I turned on him and his partner.

"Fuck off, both of you," I barked at them. "We're having a private conversation here." The two men were surprised by my outburst, but they retreated to the end of the hallway, out of earshot.

I turned back to Ric and tried to think of something to say to him. I was still trying to take in everything that he had said. Being told that I was a waste of talent by Ric Flair himself was a very bitter pill to try and swallow. "I don't want to be a waste of talent," was all I could manage, knowing full well that I sounded childish.

"Then don't be," Ric replied simply. "Stop acting like you're better than God, and stop acting like you're entitled. Worry about going out there and performing. Worry about giving your best. And that doesn't mean looking good by beating people, either. It means putting other people over too, when they need it. This is World Wrestling Entertainment, not Ronda Rousey Entertainment."

"Right," I agreed quietly, finding myself wondering how different things would have been if someone had given me this talk more than two years earlier.

Ric still wasn't done with me. "I just mentioned Sarita Lopez and how hard she's been working. You buried that woman, and all she did was speak the truth. We both know it. She wasn't diplomatic about it, I'll grant you that, but you tore her apart for it. Even so, she's managed to work so hard that the fans eventually got behind her and Hunter put her on this face run. That kind of thing is what's admirable, not selling fucking wristbands to people."

I tried to cut in, but Ric didn't even let me get a full word out. "No, shut up. Answer me this, you were going to go up to Sarita tonight and try to intimidate her, weren't you? You were going to give her a bunch of mouth, weren't you?"

"Yes," I admitted.

Ric shook his head a little. "If you really mean what you say, that you don't want to be a waste of talent, you need to be a lot better than that. If you really mean it, you can start tonight. I hope you do."

With that, Ric was done and he walked past me, but I turned and stopped him by saying his name. "Ric? I ain't going to be a waste of talent. You're going to come to me at some point in the future, we're going to talk about this conversation, and you're going to tell me you're proud of me. I promise you that."

"I'll look forward to that," Ric smiled, and then he walked around the corner and was gone.

The two security guys started to walk back over to me, but suddenly their presence sickened me. "Get out of here. I don't need you tonight," I told them with a dismissive hand gesture. I didn't even wait for them to acknowledge me before I turned and headed off to find catering, which was where most people would be at this time. Ric had been speaking figuratively when he had referred to the women in the locker room. I wanted to find Sarita Lopez and I knew that even if she wasn't in catering someone would know where she was.

Sure enough, when I walked into the large and busy seating area I saw Sarita on the opposite side of the room, sitting and talking with a woman who I didn't recognise, but who was clearly a wrestler. Someone from NXT, I assumed, and started heading over to them. A strange atmosphere descended on the room, and it became noticeably quieter. People had noticed me enter, and expected to see sparks fly. They would have been right, if I hadn't spoken to Ric. I got halfway across the room when suddenly Dean Ambrose appeared in front of me.

"Leave it, Ronda," he told me, knowing exactly who I was heading for. "It's not going to help anything. Come sit with me, huh?"

I grinned at him. "There's something deeply messed up when you're being the voice of reason. You know that, right? It's okay, Dean, really."

"You know how to hurt a guy," he joked as he stepped aside. I was a little surprised that he believed me so easily.

I walked the rest of the way to Sarita's table. By the time I got there, she was standing up and had stepped away from the table slightly. She looked ready for the confrontation that she didn't know wasn't going to happen. She at least attempted a greeting. "Ronda."

"Sarita," I nodded as I stopped in front of her. "Listen, I uh, we've both said a lot about each other, and neither of us will gain anything by continuing it. Life's too short. How about we move on?"

Sarita understandably looked surprised as I extended my hand in a peace offering, and I could see that she was considering how to respond.

"Do it, girl," the woman who I didn't recognise encouraged from her seat at the table beside where we were standing.

My hand had hung in the air for a little longer than I liked, but Sarita took it and I was surprised by how pleased I felt as we shook hands. "Join us for a coffee?" Sarita invited, gesturing towards the table with her head.

Coffee was the last thing I wanted right then, but that didn't matter. The gesture of accepting the invite was what was important. "Sure, why not?"


	3. Chapter 3

The conversation I'd had with Sarita Lopez hadn't been as awkward as I had expected it to be. We had chatted for around fifteen minutes over a cup of coffee, and I had to admit that she seemed to be sincere about wanting to put the bad blood behind us. I was glad of that, as following Ric's harsh but fair words, I was feeling uneasy about being back in WWE. His words had made me not only want to prove myself to Ric, but to myself as well. I could improve my attitude towards WWE and towards the people I had to work with. I knew I could do it if I tried hard enough.

The problem was that I had never set out to be destructive in the first place; it was just something that seemed to happen with me. During my first run with WWE, Seth Rollins and Stephanie McMahon among others had tried their best to help me and keep me under control, and I would go away from those chats thinking that I was making a new start and that it wasn't going to happen again, but then I'd get booked to lose a match or something equally trivial, and I would just lose it. I had to admit that even though I hated Vince McMahon for what he had done to me and how he had done it, I could see the why aspect of it. My constant blow ups must have had a very negative effect on the roster as a whole. Releasing me had caused a shit storm that Vince couldn't possibly have predicted, resulting in him having to step down, but I would have been willing to bet that in private he still thought he had made the right decision. I couldn't put myself or others in that position again. I had to pull my head in.

Of course, that task would be a lot easier this time as I wouldn't be wrestling week in week out, and I didn't need to rely on WWE for a job. Even so, I decided that if I thought I might be about to blow up over something I would go talk to my closest friend in WWE, Roman Reigns. We had gotten to be almost like brother and sister during my time with WWE, and although I hadn't seen him for a long time, we would chat or text quite often. Roman was one of the good guys.

As I walked away from the table I had shared with Sarita and her friend from NXT whose name I had already forgotten, I wondered where Roman was. I saw that Dean was no longer at the nearby table where he had been when I walked in. I imagined that they would both be off somewhere with Seth.

When Seth had cheated on me and our relationship had ended, Roman in particular had fought my corner. For a while, the friendship between the three guys who were like brothers to each other had gotten very strained to say the least. But time was always a healer, and now things were back to how they used to be before I showed up. I was glad about that too. I didn't want two people who I considered to be friends and a person I loved to be at each other's throats.

That was the truth of it. I still loved Seth. I had never stopped, and barely a day went by without me thinking about how our relationship had ended and what I could have done differently to prevent it. I had fame, I had fortune, but I didn't have what I wanted most. The man I loved was with someone else. That little bitch May Devany was with him, not me. Despite what I had said on several occasions in public, I hated May Devany. Over time, I had become more and more convinced that May wasn't the innocent party that she tried to make out. It was too convenient that she just happened to approach Seth in whatever bar they had been in on the night when we had been at a low point in our relationship, and had just happened to believe Seth when he said it was over between us, if he had even said that at all. The bottom line was that I thought May was full of shit. I thought she had stolen my man from me.

I walked out of catering and turned to the right to head towards my locker room. I was looking forward to seeing Nikki and catching up with her. As with Roman, I chatted to Nikki often, but I hadn't actually seen her for a long time. Life just got too busy when I had so many people wanting a piece of me all of the time.

"Hey!" A very familiar, friendly voice called out from behind me.

I turned around, and sure enough, there was Roman, but he wasn't alone. Seth was walking beside him. I didn't know what to say or do next. I'd never felt so awkward in my life. What could I possibly say to the guy? "Where's your fucking girlfriend?" was what I really wanted to say, but I obviously couldn't. "Hey," was all I managed, forcing a smile onto my face despite my stomach knotting up. I never felt nervous like this, ever, and I had no real clue how to deal with it.

"That's it? Hey?" Roman asked, smiling broadly as they approached and he offered a hug. With most people, I would try to avoid that kind of thing, but not with my brother, after not seeing him for so long. "You look good, girl," he said warmly as we held each other briefly.

"You too, bro," I assured him. Roman was really on top of his game. He looked great, and he was on a big face run on a team with Randy Orton. In fact, they were the current tag team champions. Roman and I released each other, and it was time for me to speak to Seth.

I was silently begging him not to want to hug me as I turned to him. He didn't, but he did smile at me, and that was almost as bad. "Hi, Ronda," he said, sounding about as awkward as I felt. Our eyes met and I could see it there, too. What I desperately wanted to know was _why_ he felt awkward to see me. Surely it couldn't be the same reasons that I was struggling with?

"Seth. How are you?" I managed to ask.

"I'm good. It's great to see you back, really. This storyline is going to be great."

"Thank you."

"I'll uh, leave you guys to catch up," Seth said after an awkward moment of silence, and I felt so relieved. Those had been some of the most uncomfortable words I had ever exchanged with a person. I felt so tense, and I just wanted it to be over.

"It's a good thing that wasn't awkward," Roman quipped quietly as Seth walked away, heading for catering.

"Shut up, Roman," I groaned as I turned to face him. "It's not funny. That was fucking awful."

He didn't say anything, and I saw some kind of uncertainty in his eyes for a second, as if he was trying to make a decision on something. "Come with me," he ordered me.

"Come with you where?"

"Just come," he said, already walking off, which left me without much of a choice other than to follow him.

"Where are we going?" I demanded as I caught up to him.

"Right in here." Roman opened the door we had just reached and we walked in to what I quickly realised was the locker room that he was sharing with his two brothers. Luckily, Dean wasn't in there. "Sit down, sis. We're going to talk."

"About what?" I asked as I closed the door behind me.

"You know what. The fact that you blatantly wish you were still with Seth. The fact that he spent the entire morning talking to me about you coming back. That ridiculous awkwardness in the hallway just now. I should honestly bang your heads together."

I almost had to pick my chin up from the floor and I knew for a fact that my heart skipped at least one beat. "What about May?" I blurted out.

"Like I said, sit down."

* * *

 _ **Royal Rumble 2018**_

Following the second match on the card and a commercial for the next pay-per-view, Byron Saxton, who was now WWE's main commentator, having replaced Michael Cole, introduced the next segment and the person who was already in the ring. "We're going to go up to the ring now, to John Laurinaitis, who has the much anticipated announcement from WWE's board of directors."

Big Johnny's music faded out, to be replaced by a chant of "People power!"

Smiling broadly, John waited for the chant to die down before introducing himself. "My name is Mr John Laurinaitis. I am here as the spokesman for the WWE board of directors. As I announced this past week on Raw, I am here to relay the board's decision as relates to the reassignment of Vince McMahon's stocks in the company. I can also confirm that the recipient of these stocks will have full power and privileges to run the company as they see fit."

At that moment, Stephanie McMahon's music hit, drawing a vicious volley of boos from the crowd. "Here comes Stephanie McMahon," JBL announced proudly. "Today's the day we've all been waiting for. Mrs McMahon is about to get what's rightfully hers, and it's about time too."

Stephanie walked towards the ring with an arrogant little smirk on her face as Saxton groaned at JBL, "You really make me want to hurl, John, you know that? Stephanie McMahon is a vile human being. She screwed over her own husband just to make sure she was in a position of power."

"But she _is_ in a position of power, Byron, so you might want to watch your mouth."

By this point, Stephanie was in the ring and had a microphone in hand. "John," she began, very condescendingly. "Let me speed this up a bit. We've got a great show to get through, put together entirely by me, I might add. So, make the announcement that the stocks now belong to Stephanie McMahon, we'll all celebrate for a few minutes, and then we'll move on."

The crowd began booing again and Saxton pointed out, "I don't think many people are ready to celebrate with Stephanie."

"They're idiots," JBL said dismissively.

Laurinaitis raised his microphone once more, and tried to ignore Stephanie's attitude towards him. "Stephanie, the board of directors were unanimous in their decision that WWE should remain in the control of the McMahon family."

"Naturally," Stephanie cut in arrogantly.

"Therefore, it is my pleasure to announce that the new majority shareholder of WWE is..."

John let his voice trail off, and a moment later the music hit. "Here comes the money!"

The crowd exploded, realising that Shane McMahon was back after almost nine years. Stephanie was shown, looking like she might have just pissed herself. "Oh my God!" Saxton yelled as Shane walked out and headed for the ring. "Shane McMahon is back! He's back and he's in charge of WWE! I can't believe it! Stephanie McMahon can't believe it! Look at the look on her face!"

"I don't want to believe it," JBL mumbled as Shane entered the ring.

"Shut that stupid music off!" Stephanie screeched, and then glared at the two men in the ring with her in turn. "You can't do this to me! This is my company damn it! I'm the one who's been here busting my ass week after week! I'm the one who has done it all! You walked away," she barked at Shane. "You walked away. You left. Finished. Gone. Done. I stayed. I ran this place. It's mine!"

"Wow," Shane said, blowing his cheeks out. "Somehow, I go away for nine years, and when I come back, you still seem like you're nine years old." The crowd laughed and cheered.

"I don't care!" Stephanie screeched, sounding like she might be about to start stamping her feet. "This company is mine! Mine! It doesn't belong to dad! It doesn't belong to Hunter! It certainly doesn't belong to you! It's mine!"

Grimacing at Stephanie's voice grating on him, Shane held up a hand to stop her. "You really want this bad, don't you Steph?"

"Yes!" Stephanie yelled.

"You want the stocks? I'll give them to you. I'll sign them over to you."

"What's Shane talking about? What's going on?" Saxton asked as some of the crowd booed the idea.

Stephanie narrowed her eyes at her brother. "You will?"

"Sure," Shane smiled, but there was something else in the smile that gave away that it wasn't genuine. "All you've got to do is win a match. No outside interference, no shenanigans, a one on one match. Win that, I sign the stocks over to you."

"I'm not a wrestler," Stephanie replied quickly. "And how could you? You'd be willing to hit your own sister? What kind of man are you?"

Shane shook his head slightly. "You've got two ears and one mouth, Steph. Try using them in the right ratio. I didn't say a one on one match with me. I said a one on one match, and I meant with a woman. Sister or not, I have to say that, in my opinion, it's long past time you got your ass kicked." The crowd cheered loudly as Shane finished with a question, "So how about it? Do you want this or not? You win a one on one match at Wrestlemania and I'll sign the company over to you right then and there, but if you lose, you'll never get another chance at it."

Stephanie's huge ego seemed to take control of her at that moment. "Fine! Fine! If that's what I've got to do to take control of _my_ company, then that's what I'll do. I accept your match. I accept your stupid deal, and I don't even care who it's against. There's no one on our roster who I don't think I can beat anyway."

The grin on Shane's face got bigger now that Stephanie had accepted the match. "Who said anything about someone on our roster? I don't remember saying that. No, I've decided to bring someone back especially to give you the beating you not only deserve, but actually need."

Stephanie gulped. "You've brought someone back?"

"Very good, Steph. Now you're listening."

Shane was stopped from continuing by a chant of "We want Brie," which quickly grew in intensity. Months earlier, Brie Bella had retired at the top, as Divas champion and the most popular woman on the roster.

"It's not Brie Bella," Shane smiled. "Brie's happily retired. Steph, at Wrestlemania, you will facing none other than..."

The crowd grew almost silent in anticipation as JBL growled, "Just say it."

Shane dragged out the pause even longer before announcing loudly, "Ronda Rousey!"

The roof was almost taken off the arena as Saxton yelled, "Oh God! Ronda Rousey! Ronda Rousey is coming back! Stephanie's going to get herself killed at Wrestlemania!"

"Mrs McMahon can't fight Ronda Rousey," JBL yelped incredulously. "That's not fair at all."

"Listen to this crowd!" Saxton yelled. They were still going wild, but the cheers turned to boos as Stephanie walked across the ring and slapped her brother hard in the face. Having remained in the ring throughout, Big Johnny walked over to Stephanie, who was screaming at Shane, and tried to take her arm and lead her away. The only thanks he got was a slap in the face of his own.

Both Stephanie and Shane had dropped their microphones now, so when they started yelling in each other's faces the words were hard to make out. "This is out of control," JBL said.

At that moment the original theme song for Ronda's movie Wasteland began to play, along with her entrance video. The crowd erupted yet again and Ronda walked out through the curtain, already removing her leather jacket.

"It's happened already!" Saxton screamed at the top of his voice. "Ronda Rousey is back in WWE, and she's back with a purpose! The star of Wasteland is here!"

"Stephanie, just run," JBL urged as Shane bailed out of the ring.

"Running won't help her at Wrestlemania," Saxton pointed out. "If she wants the stocks, she's got to beat Ronda in a match."

Ronda had almost reached the ring when Shane walked past her in the opposite direction and the two exchanged a fist bump, although Ronda didn't take her eyes off of Stephanie. A moment later, Ronda jumped up onto the ring apron. Stephanie quickly backed out through the ropes on the opposite side of the ring, looking at Ronda as though she was actually the Grim Reaper.

Neither woman made a move, but their eyes remained locked. One woman looked like she was about to commit murder and the other looked like she feared imminent death. A chant of "This is awesome," thundered throughout the arena for nearly a full minute, even though nothing was actually happening.

Finally, Stephanie dropped from the apron to the floor and simultaneously Ronda entered the ring. Very cautiously, Stephanie walked around the ring to the entrance side and then ran as fast as she could to get backstage.

In the ring, Ronda slowly raised her right hand, and with it her wristband, in the air, drawing another huge cheer from the crowd, followed by a very familar chant. "Ronda Rousey," echoed around the arena as the shot faded out.


	4. Chapter 4

Being back out there in an arena full of frenzied WWE fans had been quite a rush for me, especially after so long. It was actually a shame that I wouldn't be involved in much build up work before walking out to wrestle Stephanie at Wrestlemania. Most of the promo work was about the rivalry with Shane and his sister, with my name and our upcoming match being throw in with suitable regularity. I had accepted Hunter's offer to return partially for that reason, but now I wished that things were different, and not only because I wanted to appear on more shows, either. More than that, I wanted more to be able to spend more time in the back, more time to possibly be around Seth. But I knew it wasn't going to happen. It really was a shit situation.

Roman had surprised me when he had taken me to his locker room earlier in the night and told me that although he didn't want to personally get involved or to take sides or anything like that, he also didn't want to see Seth and I being so awkward around each other. I had bluntly asked him what the deal was with Seth and May's relationship, and he had clearly seen that lying to me would be pointless and stupid, not that I thought Roman would lie to me anyway. He had told me that the relationship was what he described as 'comfortable, but not happy.' That was all he would say, all he would give me. They were not happy. That was the main thing I had taken away from the chat with Roman. I could already tell that anyway from the way that Seth had looked at me in the hallway, but it was nice to get some kind of vague confirmation from someone else at least.

Now though, as I walked through the curtain back into Gorilla, I knew that within the hour I would be gone from WWE again for another month. It really sucked. I could hardly go up to Seth and say something like, "I'm out of here again, but if you decide to give the dwarf the boot, call me." Even when I did come back, I wouldn't be around for long. Nothing had been said about any kind of longer term deal following my Wrestlemania match. I was very frustrated to say the least.

"That went well," Stephanie said, referring to our promo as she walked over to me with a smile on her face. Her statement was true, but I hadn't really wanted the interruption to my thoughts at that moment. Hunter was also walking over beside her. "My last match looks like being one to remember," Stephanie added as she handed me the leather jacket that I had dropped near the entrance on my way out to the ring. I was genuinely honoured that she had chosen me to wrestle her in her last match, not that it would actually be billed or even mentioned as that. Stephanie wanted that aspect of the match to be a private thing, and I respected that.

Suddenly, a thought came to me and I blurted it out at Hunter. "You've mentioned Dwayne Johnson was supposed to do this instead of me. I seriously doubt it was going to be Steph against The Rock?"

Hunter and Stephanie both laughed before Hunter answered me. "No, it was going to be Rock against me. He would have represented Shane and I would have represented Steph. It would have been left late for it to be revealed that it was me, and that Steph and I had reconciled our differences. Anyway, it's not happening now, is it? It's Rousey - McMahon, and it's going to be great."

He was right. Our match would be great, but I wanted better than great. I wanted unforgettable. I wanted us to put on the most memorable women's wrestling match ever in my first, and probably only, Wrestlemania appearance. I knew that Wrestlemania 34 was the night when WWE were finally doing away with the stupid PG era, and going back to TV-14. I decided to bite the bullet and throw what I was thinking out there to Hunter and Stephanie. "It will be great, but Steph, it can be better than that. Why don't we make it memorable?"

"What do you mean?" Stephanie asked, a little gleam in her eyes telling me that I had her attention and interest.

"My idea is simple. It's not going to be PG, so why don't we not just wrestle, why don't we beat the shit out of each other?"

"What?" Stephanie asked again, although she had obviously heard me. She was buying herself a few seconds because she was surprised. That was definitely understandable. I thought that maybe I could have phrased it a little better, but what I wanted to do was exactly what I had said.

"I said let's beat the shit out of each other. It's your last match, Steph. It's my first, and maybe only, Wrestlemania. It's the night you guys throw PG out the window, so let's throw it out the fucking window properly. I'm not afraid to take a beating and I don't think you are either. Make it a street fight or something, and we'll go to the next level."

"Now wait a minute," Hunter began hesitantly, but Stephanie raised a hand slightly to stop him.

"Sell it to me." She still had that same gleam in her eyes.

I spoke as passionately as I could, because I could see that she was seriously considering it. "Like I said, let's make it special. Let's not just have people come away from that match going 'I saw Rousey - McMahon, and it was pretty awesome.' Let's have them come away going 'Holy shit, I can't believe what I just watched. There's never going to be a women's match like that again.' It's up to you, though. I don't want you to get into something you're not comfortable with, but the image I have in my head of both of us at the end of that match, too destroyed to move. That really appeals to me. I'm picturing blood, sweat and tears, the whole nine. What do you say?"

No one said anything for a moment, until Stephanie looked at her Hunter. "Hunter?"

"I don't tell you what to do, honey. You know that. If you want to do it, we'll do it."

Stephanie took another moment to make up her mind and I saw her take in a deep breath, but I already knew what she was going to say. I could see it in her eyes. "Alright, Ronda, let's do something special."

"Can't wait," I grinned back at her. Stephanie was ten years older than me and had nothing like the knowledge of how to fight that I had, but that didn't really matter in wrestling. She had proved in the past that she could put on a good match, and she was in the shape of her life. We both were. Throw in some graphic violence and we had a classic on our hands. It was a shame that it was two months away. I didn't want to have to wait that long.

The three of us chatted for another couple of minutes and then said our goodbyes as Hunter and Stephanie had to get back to producing the show. I had nothing else to keep me at the arena, so I decided to head to my locker room, get my things, and clear out. I wouldn't be back at WWE again for another month, partly because I had other commitments and partly because of the way that they had written the build up for my match at Wrestlemania. Stephanie and Shane were going to carry the first part of it, before I would return again on the first Raw following the next pay-per-view.

I headed to my locker room, collected my things, said my goodbyes to Nikki, and just like that I was leaving WWE again. It was only for a month, but it still felt strange. My first night back hadn't actually lasted very long, but it had sure been eventful. I had been taken to the learning tree by Ric Flair, and although I had barely spoken to Colby, I had learned about how he felt about me too. At least, I thought I had. I hoped that in the month that I would be gone, he would realise that I was the one he wanted to be with and would kick May Devany to the curb. If he didn't, I would have to up my game when I returned. I wouldn't just be coming back to wrestle Stephanie McMahon, that was for sure.

No, I told myself as I walked out of the arena that night, I wanted Seth back in my life. I felt very confident that he wanted me back in his life, too. One way or another, his relationship with May was going to end. Either he would do it or I would. I was prepared to hurt May Devany if I had to. If their relationship was already troubled, there was no way it would last if May wasn't a part of WWE anymore. Besides, May owed me two years of hurt. The prospect of what I had just imagined myself doing made me smile as I got into the car with my security guards. "I will make you hurt," I mumbled under my breath.

END


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